Know your enemy: 5 questions with Browns Wire

Know your enemy: 5 questions with Browns Wire

In order to help learn more about Houston’s Week 6 opponent, we turned to brother site Browns Wire for some intel. Analyst Bryce Rossler graciously answered some question about the Browns, including Myles Garrett, the QB switch to Kevin Hogan and the best thing about the winless visitors to NRG Stadium.

As always, our questions are in bold and Rossler’s answers are in plain text.

Myles Garrett sure impressed in his debut. Is he going to give the Texans problems?

With Duane Brown’s holdout still looming large, Myles Garrett will, at the very least, command additional resources on Sunday. The first overall pick was exceptional against the Jets despite still being hampered by his ankle, and he’ll be even more explosive this week. Garrett should feast against Chris Clark, who struggles when pressed in his vertical sets. Even though he’s just one game into his NFL career, Garrett already looks to be a gamechanger.

How much better will the offense flow under Kevin Hogan?

Hogan gets typecast as a game manager for obvious reasons, but he hasn’t done a great job of hanging onto the ball in limited action. While it’s admittedly a smaller sample size, Kevin Hogan’s career interception rate (6.25 percent) is higher than DeShone Kizer’s (5.66). Granted, he’s had less fumbles than Kizer, but this QB competition is really about the lesser of two evils. Even then, Hogan represents a downgrade to the struggling Kizer, and he should further limit an anemic Browns attack. Suffice to say, I don’t think Hogan will right the ship.

The Browns are loaded with young players. How are the rookies aside from Garrett faring?

A ten-pick draft class for the Browns has yielded few early returns. Kizer’s struggles have been well-documented and Jabrill Peppers has had a tough time transitioning to the pro game. Their kicker, Zane Gonzalez, is 0-for-3 on field goal tries the past two games.

On the bright side, you could make a case that David Njoku is already the best weapon they have on offense. The Miami product has three touchdowns in the last four games and has looked good when given opportunities. Few other rookies have seen significant playing time, but defensive tackle Larry Ogunjobi has flashed in rotational action. To put it succinctly, the rookie crop has been a mixed bag thus far.

What’s one thing the Browns do well that they don’t get enough credit for?

There aren’t exactly a lot of choices on the table, but the Browns’ rushing defense has been their biggest, if not only, strength this season. The team ranks in the top five in run defense, as they cede just 76.6 rushing yards per game on average. This is impressive considering they lay claim to the NFL’s second-worst point differential (-47) through five games and have often played from behind. The Browns have a good front seven, especially now that Myles Garrett is back.

Who wins and why?

The Texans are going to win this game. Despite losing their two best defenders in JJ Watt and Whitney Mercilus, their defense should swarm a punchless Browns offensive unit. The Browns’ defense is decent enough to keep this close in theory, but I don’t trust Kevin Hogan and Co. to hang onto the ball or win the field position game. Texans win, 27-10.

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